Live Free or Die Hard (Len Wiseman, 2007)

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Highway 61 · #51 Post by **Highway 61** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:02 am

malcolm1980 wrote:Can you believe I've never seen the original Die Hard all the way through?

The original is one of the few summer blockbusters that shouldn't be missed. Endlessly entertaining, with dozens of sophisticated flourishes. Fox has flooded virtually every retailer with the new set of the first three films, so if you can find it for cheap, definitely take a look.

Cinesimilitude · #52 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:52 am

malcolm1980 wrote:Can you believe I've never seen the original Die Hard all the way through? I'm skipping this one.

No, I can't. You should probably take care of that, ASAP.

exte · #53 Post by **exte** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:08 am

I was watching Under Siege tonight just because of the first Die Hard. It's really a landmark film for its time...

patrick · #54 Post by **patrick** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:48 am

Under Siege is definitely the high point of Seagal's career.

The Invunche · #55 Post by **The Invunche** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:21 am

After the cake scene it was all downhill.

lord_clyde · #56 Post by **lord_clyde** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:05 pm

Saw it, liked it, Bruce Willis rides a descending jet like the bomb in Strangelove. If you can suspend your disbelief for that, you'll probably have a good time.

THX1378 · #57 Post by **THX1378** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:59 am

Saw it yesterday and was surprized at how good the film was. I thought after seeing the trailer, and learning that it had got a PG-13 that the film was going to be a disappointment. It's good every once and a while to be surprized by a film that your going to think is a disappointment. I'd even go as far to say that this is going to be the action film of the summer, after the disappointments Spider-Man 3 and Pirates let people down, and I don't have much hope for Transformers or Rush Hour 3.

Antoine Doinel · #58 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:34 am

THX1378 wrote:after the disappointments Spider-Man 3 and Pirates let people down, and I don't have much hope for Transformers or Rush Hour 3.

I guess the positive reviews are good, so maybe I'll catch it on DVD or cable at some point. But for my money, I think Transformers is going to blow the competition out of the water.

DDillaman · #59 Post by **DDillaman** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:47 pm

Antoine Doinel wrote:I think Transformers is going to blow

And by all accounts of those I know who have seen it (it opened in NZ yesterday), you are correct.

Antoine Doinel · #60 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:34 pm

Die Hard 12

Commander Shears · #61 Post by **Commander Shears** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:58 pm

Antoine Doinel wrote:Die Hard 12

This guy didn't have early '90s Fox resources, but it amuses me. Die Hard + the Mac kid = iHard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZQZSVm0EU

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #62 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:23 pm

Antoine Doinel wrote:Die Hard 12

Man, you gotta love the laugh and the "Yabba Dabba Doo Yabba Dabba Dee" part.

FOr all 12 episodes, Ben Stiller Show was great.

margot · #63 Post by **margot** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:19 pm

I've been hit with a Die Hard craving for some reason. I'm compelled to see all 3 of them (I've only seen the first one) so I'm gonna pickup that 6-disc boxset with all 3 movies after I see Live Free or Die Hard on Sunday.

I'll probably end up seeing it again next weekend if I like it.

Also I wanna get the Speed DVD (Jesus what's happening to me? I'm craving all kinds of action movies!)

Cosmic Bus · #64 Post by **Cosmic Bus** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:15 am

Caught a (nearly empty) late showing last night and hated it. Absolutely inane, dunderheaded script bursting with silly, instantly dated techo-babble, and dialogue that felt ever so stilted and neutered (this movie is to "jackass" as Lebowski is to "fuck"). Virtually no suspense, no thrills; the entire bloated production comes off totally flat. Parkour stunts shoehorned in simply because, well, everyone else is doing it, why can't we? Justin Long... Kevin Smith.

Willis briefly shines here and there, rumbling with Maggie Q and cackling like a looney at the ridiculousness of these situations, but these moments are very few and far between. When McClane finally feels obligated to wheeze out his signature line, it's the tepid capper to a tired and uninspired ride. ...Maybe he should've aimed higher and to the left.

colinr0380 · #65 Post by **colinr0380** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:14 am

This was an interesting article comparing what was great about the first film with the sequels.

patrick · #66 Post by **patrick** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:59 pm

I rewatched the first Die Hard today and although I've always liked the film, years of neutered TV versions made me forget how fucking great it really is. If people seeing it for the first time today aren't blown away by it, it's only because action movies have cribbed from it so much over the last 19 years. It's just amazing to watch a huge action movie with characters that act like real people (or at least as close as one could hope in a blockbuster film that involves rocket launchers and exploding helicopters). Alan Rickman is brilliant (is the only reason he hasn't been tapped to be a Bond villain because no one can forget him as Hans Gruber?), and Willis is way better than I remember. Why can't there be more action films like this, that assume that both the characters and the audience aren't mildly retarded?

lord_clyde · #67 Post by **lord_clyde** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:00 am

patrick wrote:Why can't there be more action films like this, that assume that both the characters and the audience aren't mildly retarded?

But they did make more movies like Die Hard. A LOT more. What can I say? Lightning doesn't strike twice.

lord_clyde · #68 Post by **lord_clyde** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:59 pm

Looks like even Woody Allen tried to get some of that Die Hard money.

Nothing · #69 Post by **Nothing** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:29 pm

I dunno. There are some movies from my childhood that I look back and say, you know what, that was actually a pretty good movie. Say Aliens or Back to the Future... But I saw Die Hard again a few months ago, for the first time in maybe 15 years, and wasn't impressed at all. A ludicrious, formulaic, slightly xenophobic, simple-minded action yarn with dubious sexual politics. As for the sequels...

Antoine Doinel · #70 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:10 pm

lord_clyde wrote:Looks like even Woody Allen tried to get some of that Die Hard money.

The funniest thing about that sketch was the "quote" from the Village Voice. Hilarious.

Len · #71 Post by **Len** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:29 pm

The article posted by colinr put in words pretty much everything I disliked about the film. I think this is easily the worst sequel in the bunch, and it doesn't feel like an Die Hard film at all. The series has gone a long way in the wrong direction when McClane is riding on the wing of a stealth fighter.

And I never ever want to see computer hackers in action films. They're not cool (especially ones that have posters of Linkin Park on their wall, no matter what Michael Mann may think about the band) and films that circle around the nefarious usage of computers are never any good. And if one annoying hacker-type character wasn't enough (altho I did get a good chuckle out of the politics of the film exemplified by McClane showing the kid the error of his dangerous leftist ways), even the enemies in the film are nerds (and wtf was the Kevin Smith character all about??). Just horrible.

Was kinda fun seeing Seth Bullock as the bad guy though, Olyphant's an interesting actor.

Antoine Doinel · #72 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:17 pm

DrewReiber · #73 Post by **DrewReiber** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:35 pm

There should be a drinking game for how many times the movie cuts back to the FBI for exposition or the bad guys when they say "We're in" or "[fill in the blank] downloaded". The first hour was so bad that I almost walked out even though I was with my parents. I was so relieved when I found out my father found it just as painful as I did.

Did anyone notice how dialogue frequently didn't match the performances? Apparently no one ever taught Wiseman how to shoot dialogue, so the poor editors had to constantly work with mistimed performances in the majority of multi-angle dialogue sequences. AND THERE WAS A LOT.

#74 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:56 pm

domino harvey wrote: I have very little faith that there are enough new and exciting ideas to justify a fourth film.

And here's where I eat my words. I went in very, very skeptical, but indeed this does feel like a Die Hard movie in the sense of the absurd and genius action set pieces that have an insane logic and giddy level of invention. Save the rather generic opening sequence, the other sequences moved me to excitement and involvement, a rarity in action films outside of this series (as I've mentioned earlier in the thread). By the time Willis is sliding off a jet, Die Hard With a Vengeance has retroactively achieved new mounds of plausibility.

davebert · #75 Post by **davebert** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:53 pm

I must... agree with that. As awful as most of the acting is, contrived as the plot is, etc. etc., I got a lot more out of my recent rental of this then I figured going in. And like I told my wife, this is the only series where I can fully appreciate the absurdity of the hero's doctorate in Physics of Destruction. Getting cars to fly up abutments at just the right angle, or traveling up a street in the process of collapsing--it makes sense that Bruce would have this kind of knowledge permanently seared in his brain after three previous adventures.